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Sam O'Steen has been at the heart of some of the most important and
award-winning films of the last 30 years. O'Steen began his career
in the mid-1950s as an assistant editor and rapidly rose up to a full
editor in the early 1960s on such films as
Robin and the Seven Hoods
and
Youngblood Hawke
.

In 1966 O'Steen teamed up with a young director named Mike Nichols
on the acclaimed
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Known for his creative editing style, O'Steen and the director
forged a relationship which has lasted the better part of three decades.
O'Steen received an Academy Award nomination for
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
O'Steen and Nichols's partnership produced some of the most
respected films of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Nowhere are
O'Steen's skills more apparent than in Dustin
Hoffman's classic debut film,
The Graduate
. O'Steen gives the audience time to study the performer's
face before cutting the scene. O'Steen allows for long, personal
looks at Hoffman's facial expressions to give the viewers an idea
of what the character is thinking instead of the
"quick-cutting" seen so often in modern films. In
The Graduate
Hoffman's expressions at the party scene are as important to the
character as any bit of dialogue and O'Steen does not cut the scene
short.

O'Steen also worked with renowned director Roman Polanski on
Rosemary's Baby
and
Chinatown
, which garnered O'Steen's second Academy Award nomination.
Chinatown
is one of the best films of the 1970s and O'Steen's
seamless editing keeps the film from slowing down.
Chinatown
is shot almost entirely in close-ups of the characters talking, yet it
feels as though the action never stops. As Jack Nicholson solves the
mystery, the audience solves the mystery so every scene is invaluable.
Each scene is edited so that once a piece of information is revealed, it
ends. One of the interesting things about
Chinatown
is information is discovered as much through Nicholson's facial
expressions as it is through actual clues, so O'Steen's
editing had to hold the scenes long enough for the audience to keep up
with the story. Faye Dunaway's famous revelation scene near the end
of
Chinatown
shows O'Steen's skill as an editor. The scene lasts long
enough for Nicholson (and the audience) to comprehend the magnitude of
John Huston's incestuous relationship with Dunaway without
lingering into overkill.

In 1976 O'Steen took a shot at directing feature films with the
unremarkable
Sparkle
, a story about the rise of a black singing group. He has also directed a
number of made-for-television movies.

Sam O'Steen has been a part of many of the most memorable movies of
the last 30 years. He tends to be surrounded by quality directors and
performers. In addition to Hoffman and Nichols, Polanski and Nicholson, he
has worked with such heavyweights as Paul Newman in
Cool Hand Luke
, Harrison Ford in
Regarding Henry
, and Meryl Streep in the 1983 film
Silkwood
, for which he received his third Academy Award nomination.

In the end, Sam O'Steen will be forever linked with old pro Mike
Nichols. In 1988 they worked together with Harrison Ford and Melanie
Griffith on
Working Girl
, and teamed up with an old friend from the
Carnal Knowledge
days, Jack Nicholson, for the 1994 film
Wolf
. Sam O'Steen continues to be one of the most respected film
editors in the business.

—Patrick J. Sauer

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